Cider House Rules: Review

I've been postponing watching this movie, knowing ahead of time that I'd be disgusted by its promotion of abortion. I've also suspected that it would be historically-revisionist. It irks me incredibly when people can't face up to the truth about history, and need to create false caricatures in order to buttress their own position.

Anyway, I'm watching it as I write - "Homer" is just about to perform his first abortion - but I'm ahead of myself. The plot is that an abortion-performing, orphanage-running, doctor raises one particular boy to follow in his medical footsteps. This boy, "Homer", doesn't want anything to do with abortion, but doesn't take particular offence to "Dr. Larch's" performance of them. This, despite the fact that he carries the fetal remains to the incinerator. Homer eventually leaves the orphanage, to discover a wider world, but also ostensibly to escape his destiny. The movie takes its name from a list of rules posted on the wall in a cider house - the workers can't read the rules, and didn't make the list - they see no point in following the rules for this reason. The lead black character is over-doing the not-following-rules-we-didn't-make bit right now, just in case viewers didn't catch the sledgehammer allusion. Oops, Homer just burned the list of rules, apparently signifying his acceptance of his 'gift' of performing abortions.

A few particulars: many abortionists today do their work for great financial gain - from the movie, you'd think that abortionists should be canonized for their selfless concern for women in need; there are many documented cases of abortionists today who have butchered women coming to them for legal abortions, and because the abortion industry fights any kind of regulation, these abortionists are untouchable; the black girl Homer aborts is apparently pregnant due to her own father, who is eventually able to quietly stand by and support his daughter as she gets an abortion - as I've written about before, a woman in the situation of incest, paradoxically, often desires to become pregnant, because it forces people around her to acknowledge the abuse she's undergoing - on the other hand, it's probably not that unusual for a man committing incest to desire abortion to protect his crime.

On the whole, it's as I expected - people involved with abortion are portrayed as selfless and realistic heroes. Those who oppose abortion as hopelessly idealistic. Abortion itself as a solution, when in fact it actually masks the problems that abortion revealed. Absolutely no mention, nor concern, for the unborn human being - an entity entirely ignored in this propaganda piece.

CBC Plan B Exposé

Tonight's CBC News included an in-depth report on the efforts to make Plan B "emergency contraception" illegal over-the-counter. The thrust of the report was on the political interference apparently exerted by the Bush administration (or its appointees) to prevent the availability of Plan B.

Admittedly, I missed a portion of the report, but listening to the rest in detail I found nowhere in it the key moral problems associated with it, ie. its abortifacient aspects. Once again, the CBC seems to assume that people understand the 'right views' about the morality of this abortion-related issue, and won't stoop to having to explain and/or defend their editorial position that anything abortion-related is a good, Canadian value.

I'm having trouble recalling their exposé detailing the political intereference Bill Clinton exerted when he fast-tracked RU-486 through the FDA, despite inadequate testing, an abortion drug that has since knowingly killed several women who've used it. Then again, anything abortion-related can only be good, so why bother?

What Really Works to Prevent AIDS?

The hypocrisy of many when it comes to AIDS is showing with the current conference in Toronto there dedicated to AIDS. When Bill Gates, a large contributor to AIDS relief efforts, lauded President Bush for his commitment of public funds, conference attendees showed their preference of politics to solutions that work. They also booed Gates when he recognized the singular success of the Ugandan program, which strongly emphasizes abstinence and fidelity. These people are so blinded by and addicted to their promiscuity that they refuse to learn from what will actually prevent the suffering of millions. Throwing condoms at those 'at risk' has NEVER worked, and will never work. Putting sexuality in the context of values of fidelity and trust and self-control will have a significant effect. It's that simple.

NO!! to Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Apparently not content with the destruction of unborn human beings through abortion, scientists seek to deliberately create human embryos now for the purpose of experimenting on them. Despite the specter of Godwin's Law hanging over my head, I choose to invoke memories of Nazi doctors experimenting on societal 'undesirables'. No amount of good* can justify taking lives to improve the quality of other lives. The lives of human embryos must be respected in and of themselves for us to remain a non-barbaric civilization.

*Not that good actually comes from these experiments. I challenge anyone in favour of embryonic stem cell research to name one successful treatment coming from this research. In fact, these researchers don't expect to develop any real treatments anytime soon, if ever. It's simply science cut off from the world of ethics. On the other hand, adult stem cells already provide the beginnings of many treatments, and overcome the worst of the problems of embryonic stem cells. We could have a society that seeks the best health of its citizens AND respect all human life if we would focus our efforts on adult stem cell research.

Until we're able to ban embryonic stem cell research, I would like to have a law requiring that any organization participating in/benefitting from it to advertise their involvement. I, for one, will not help any organization, be it donating or canvassing or anything, if they are involved in willfully destroying human life to achieve their goals. To me, this is far more important than efforts by some to force companies to advertise that their foods contain genetically modified products.